The American Retirement Association has joined as a founding member of the Save Our Savings (SOS) Coalition, an alliance dedicated to protecting Americans’ retirement savings.

The SOS Coalition will work to ensure Americans continue to have access to the private sector retirement system and to meaningful savings incentives.

“We are pleased to be founding members of this coalition as it will be critically important for all retirement system stakeholders to work together to make sure that tax reform does not threaten the retirement security of working Americans,” noted Brian Graff, CEO of the American Retirement Association.

The Retirement Plan Advantage

Data from the non-partisan Employee Benefit Research Institute indicates that moderate income workers, those earning between $30,000 and $50,000/year, are 15 times more likely to save when they have access to a plan at work.

According to the 27th Annual Retirement Confidence Survey from the non-partisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald & Associates, workers who participate in a retirement plan are 10 times more likely to be currently saving for retirement (74% with a plan vs. 7% without). Moreover, these workers have significantly more in savings and investments than do those without a plan. While two-thirds of workers without a retirement plan (67%) report having less than $1,000 in savings and investments, that was the case for less than 10% among workers with a retirement plan.

Additionally, workers reporting they or their spouse participate in a DC plan are significantly more likely than those who do not participate in such a plan to have tried a calculation (49% vs. 15%).

Workers who have a retirement plan, whether a DC plan, DB plan or IRA, are far more likely to feel confident about having enough money for retirement. Workers reporting they or their spouse have money in a DC plan or IRA or have benefits in a DB plan from a current or previous employer are more than twice as likely as those without any of these plans to be at least somewhat confident (71% with a plan vs. 33% without a plan).

In addition to the American Retirement Association, the membership of the SOS Coalition includes the American Benefits Council, the Financial Services Roundtable, the Investment Company Institute, New Economics for Women, Northern Trust, the Plan Sponsor Council of America, Principal, the SPARK Institute and the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement.